Tampon pledgets have been traditionally made from cellulose or cellulose derived materials such as rayon. These pledgets have been formed in a bulky rectangular web and compressed in some manner to form a cylinder of reduced bulk. Compression is utilized to add absorbency per unit volume to the pledget.
Cellulosic materials, while they are relatively inexpensive and are effective absorbents, do suffer from some disadvantages. Compressed pledgets are relatively inflexible and rigid and are therefore uncomfortable during insertion. While compression maximizes the amount of material available for absorption per unit volume for the cellulose type absorbent, the material must re-swell to fully utilize its absorbent capacity. Complete re-swelling, however, seldom occurs.
Attempts have been made to produce tampons having deformable and resilient pledgets with good absorbent capacity. An example of such a tampon was the RELY tampon sold by Procter & Gamble. In this particular tampon a compressible resilient foam was combined in discrete chunks with very finely divided superabsorbent material. While this tampon did produce excellent absorbent capacity and component, this tampon has been linked to toxic shock syndrome and has been withdrawn from the market place. Several other attempts have been made to utilize hydrophilic foam such as disclosed in British Pat. No. 1,595,139. Hydrophilic foams, however, suffer from the disadvantage that when they are compressed the fluid entrapped within is liberated much like wringing a wet sponge.
Other tampons have been made which are designed to be soft and flexible but are usually found to be either difficult to manufacture or lacking in absorbency. U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,395 which discloses a drapable covered absorbent batt useful as a tampon pledget is an example of typical art in this area.